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"25th Birthday Bash" Community Event Details; New Cities To Be Added

Posted by Kenny on November 5, 2024, 5:43 pm NST

Last week, TNT announced the 40 cities where they plan to have community-run events to celebrate the 25th birthday of Neopets. At that time, only the cities were announced; dates, times, and venues were still all TBD.

Since then, much of the meetup details have been released! At the time of writing, 31 of the 40 locations have their details posted on the Neopets Portal:

View the Full List of Events »

Why not all 40? Well, there have been some logistical challenges in some locations. TNT Dragon has shared an update in unofficial Facebook group Neopets Nation with some explanation, as well as plans for expanding the celebration due to the level of interest. We've broken up the announcement into thematic sections. UPDATE, NOVEMBER 5th, ~10PM NST: A version of this announcement is now also available on TNT's official Neoboard.

Attendance is Exceeding TNT Expectations

🎉 Update Regarding the 25th Anniversary Birthday Bash 🥳

We’re thrilled by the overwhelming support and interest in the Neopets 25th Birthday Bash Community Meetups!

Originally, we envisioned smaller scale, community-led meetups, but didn’t anticipate the outpour of interest that has exceeded our initial expectations and accommodations from the planning stage. We want to empower our community to come together and celebrate this major milestone, and we encourage you to do this in your area if attending a Birthday Bash is not feasible.

The incredible enthusiasm we have seen has led us to work with hosts to expand capacity or look at alternative solutions, which has understandably led to some confusion and frustration within the community. We’re here to address these concerns and ensure clear communication with everyone.

Avatar and Merch
The announcement includes news that meetups will have virtual prize codes for an item that will in some way be used to unlock an avatar. However, the item can be "lent or sold" and so likely can be unlocked by anybody whether they attend an event or not! Also, as previously announced, TNT will provide merch for hosts to use for giveaways.

These gatherings are driven by community hosts, and we’re supporting them with some irl merchandise for raffles and lucky-draw activities. In addition, all event attendees with a Neopets.com username will receive a virtual prize, which includes a Birthday Bash Avatar awarded through an in-game item, and can be lent or sold onsite to other players.

Our hosts have been fantastic partners, helping us explore what’s feasible to accommodate the high level of interest. We have so much appreciation for their support and dedication.

More Celebrations to be Planned
To accommodate the high level of interest, TNT intends to plan additional events for a full month after the birthday weekend. These may include additional events in the 40 cities already announced and/or in other cities not already included!

IMPORTANT BIRTHDAY BASH UPDATES❗️
- While hosts have worked hard to ensure we have several gatherings on our birthday weekend, we have also decided to extend the meetup period through December 15, 2024.
- Some events are not yet listed as we are working with hosts to find ways to increase capacity, but the landing page will be updated regularly.
- We are reviewing previous applicants to reach out to some additional hosts in cities that have reached capacity very quickly (we see you NorCal and Ohio!). These events will run after the birthday weekend.

🚨The landing page with all information can be found here:
https://portal.neopets.com/news/oct28-neopetsbirthdaybash
Event listings will be transitioned into 2 categories:
1) Birthday Weekend Meetups (November 15-17, 2024)
2) Ongoing Meetups through December 15, 2024 (Dates variable based on hosts)

A few of our cities initially announced, (but that do not yet have confirmed details like Toronto & São Paulo, Brazil) may transition to the second category, so they can more adequately prepare for the larger turnout.

TNT is Thankful and Open to Questions

We appreciate all of you and we are grateful for a community that holds this much passion surrounding Neopets. With a clear path forward now determined, questions can be directed towards TNT Dragon in this thread, but please note that The Neopets Team does not tolerate harassment directed towards staff, players, or hosts.

Thank you! 🙏🏻

Do you plan to attend one of the events? Do you have a location you'd like a new event to be planned? Let us know in the comments!

Make a Comment!

There are 66 comments below. Add yours!

more pay to win :/

by mercy_graves on November 5, 2024 6:26 PM NST

Wow, tried to RSVP for Austin TX and it's already packed!

by minidriver on November 5, 2024 6:43 PM NST

Happy to hear there will be more opportunities though! I wouldn't have been able to call out for the first

by stuffie on November 5, 2024 6:49 PM NST

I'm baffled by how unorganized and unplanned they were with this. People need time to plan ahead to ask off work etc. The event closest to me is on a Friday and I work Fridays so I guess I'm not going lol.

by brophyvirginia on November 5, 2024 6:50 PM NST

Off-site update again? Why doesn't TNT learn?

by stormmonarch on November 5, 2024 7:34 PM NST

The avatar is an incredibly bad idea that puts stress on everyone involved for little benefit. The parties are already going to fill up easily, adding an avatar encourages people to have +1 guests or more with them will make this even worse. Avatar codes go for $100+ dollars easily in the past. It will absolutely cause a FOMO among the community and there will never be enough parties for everyone. Plus it's simply not fair. It takes what's supposed to be a fun event and makes it about avatar collecting.

And avatars based on lending items/pets always causes so much scamming that is a headache for TNT and users.

by ummy on November 5, 2024 7:40 PM NST JN Staff

The parties were already dramatic when they're supposed to promote the brand due to filling up instantly (as it turns out, there are in fact more than 20-50 Neopets fans in major cities), but this just fans the flames. There was literally no reason at all to give an avatar but to cause a rush at trying to RSVP or you lose out. I feel bad for the hosts trying to manage all of this demand on short notice.

by ummy on November 5, 2024 7:49 PM NST JN Staff

And avatars based on lending items/pets always causes so much scamming that is a headache for TNT and users.
---
To add to this, they literally banned the lending of NC items for dyeworks because it got so bad. Neopets has over 300k daily users, imagine MILLIONS of users wanting to borrow an item that there's maybe 1000 max. Even if some of those go wrong, that's a lot of work for TNT to freeze, a lot of drama and fear in the community that isn't fun for anyone. And inevitably some of those items get stolen by the pant devil, shadow Usul, grundo leader, sloth's ray gun, meuka, etc.

by ummy on November 5, 2024 7:53 PM NST JN Staff

Voy al de Buenos Aires. Vamos a ver como llegar, yo trataré de ir más temprano a ver si puedo intercambiar peluchitos que tengo de Neopets (no me va mucho que sea en un bar).

by cesar_angel on November 5, 2024 8:04 PM NST

I‘m kind glad I don’t collect avatars neither I will be in Munich next weekend, cause I‘m visiting my parents.
I hope everything will go smoothly and people will have fun.

by emrah on November 5, 2024 8:27 PM NST

Welp! NYC is sold out! No surprise there! But then again how is only one location available in bigger cities?

And when the locations were first announced the link to RSVP wasn’t open yet. So how did it sell out so quickly? And I could care less about an avatar! It was mostly to meet fellow Neopians for me!

by lokaula on November 5, 2024 9:15 PM NST

Well, this feels like a bit of a middle finger to introverts with the pay-to-win avatar thing.

by sakaarson on November 5, 2024 9:38 PM NST

Would have been nice if an event was held in Glasgow for the UK. Not everyone has the means to get to London or Belfast (I would have to travel to Glasgow anyway to get a train to London)

by chloe on November 5, 2024 9:43 PM NST

this is so pointlessly stressful lol "RSVP FULL!" yeah like that's really going to stop people from showing up anyway, first of all. second of all this is so haphazardly planned you'd think it was a teenager's birthday party, not a massively successful website with millions of users turning 2-damn-5

(also, milwaukee is right there. i'll host the milwaukee one nbd)

by mercurial on November 5, 2024 9:55 PM NST

Welp! NYC is sold out!

What?! No way! I was literally going to RSVP to that when i got a chance. I'm so bummed bc i was looking at the location and it's amazing. so much so i was thinking of making a weekend trip and doing some sightseeing before the meetup. Oh well. =/

I suppose it's good in a way bc the location would run you $50-$100 for food/drinks and the time is not ideal (night time meetup? 6-9pm on a sunday? wth??!) maybe i'll check out the philly location....

by amber_hawk14 on November 5, 2024 10:41 PM NST

The Minnesota one is free and it's on a Sunday so I'm going there!

by kacheekfan96 on November 5, 2024 11:20 PM NST

I’m also disappointed that initially there was no way to RSVP, and now that attention has been drawn to it again, there’s no more capacity for the London event. Not the greatest way of running things. Why not create a waitlist?

by panavision3 on November 5, 2024 11:35 PM NST

I agree with Ummy’s points.

I’ve already seen people planning to visit multiple events in the one weekend, which takes spots away from other potential attendees. Spreading the events over a longer period and having an exclusive (-ish) avatar attached could make that worse.

by recklesse on November 6, 2024 12:31 AM NST

Well for me it's easy. There is no event planned in my country, and I have no intention of doing TNT's job for them and organise one. If only because I have zero faith they'd actually deliver what they promised to organisers. I'm going to consider this another lesson in learning to get over FOMO and completionist tendencies. What a shambles.

by woodstocki on November 6, 2024 1:29 AM NST

I hate that they are doing pay to win avatars and collectibles. I just hate it. In a few years, If neo will still be up, the whole site will be pay to win. They just don't care, only thing they care about is to fill their pockets. After the tcg avatars, I'm even more disappointed, but sadly not surprised. I don't have any more faith for this "new tnt" anymore. I'm done hoping.

by sinthr on November 6, 2024 1:56 AM NST

P2W avatar, again. I don't even have an event here in Japan.

by zenopeltis on November 6, 2024 2:58 AM NST

Great! Not only the events are thrown at the users' lap 2 weeks before its date, but 1 week before, they announce an avatar for something that 90%+ of the users can't even attend? It's not even present at more than a dozen countries out of 200+ in the world...

Geez, they really put a "you aren't welcome if you aren't from the US" label in this game and are reinforcing it, making it stronger as days go by. Merch with avatars that would cost 2 or 3x as much for foreigners to get, and now a meetup... Ugh!

Not to mention I'd travel a thousand km before to go to the Brazilian meetup, but then it was moved, probably due to the lack of an early announcement and how hard it is to get a venue in São Paulo at this time of the year. And now it's moved to a later date, when I'm not gonna be on my vacations anymore 🤡

by ferinsy on November 6, 2024 3:17 AM NST

I still have no idea where to send my RVSP for the Belfast one. I mean, I've searched everywhere and I can only find the name of the event, but no dates and no exact place. What do I do?

by nacbokmagi on November 6, 2024 4:16 AM NST

@nacbokmagi

If you go to the official list of cities (linked in the JN post above), find the city name and click on the tiny arrow on the left hand side. It should open a panel with details of the event and a link at the bottom to RSVP.

Took me a hot minute to work out those arrows were clickable links. I kept trying to click on the actual text (name of city).

by recklesse on November 6, 2024 4:27 AM NST

I'm so sad about the lack of proper planning. I was so excited to attend the Buenos Aires meet-up but having announced the exact date with only one week and a half of anticipation I already have other plans that I can't change. Such a bummer

by juls_spears on November 6, 2024 4:38 AM NST

@panavision3 Especially when details released outside GMT time and so when UK asleep. I was 12hrs too late and at capacity. Anyone know where the London one will be held, as I'd be interested in how big a venue it is.

by uv_goth on November 6, 2024 4:52 AM NST

Why is anyone acting surprised??

by androponix on November 6, 2024 4:58 AM NST

My city is no longer accepting responses??? Do I not get to go??? This is really wild and disappointing

by araeveya on November 6, 2024 5:04 AM NST

Yeah I'm showing up anyway. This feels like more elitist stuff I'm locked out of as an average player and I want to meet other players in my community. It think this is wildly unfair.

by araeveya on November 6, 2024 5:06 AM NST

I'm Italian and I don't know anyone very active on neopets. I still think I'll do the crazy thing of going all the way to Germany just to feel part of this strange isolated niche that is neopet, maybe I know someone nearby who still plays a lot like me, otherwise I'll represent Italy and its like 5 players still active...

by mikela0 on November 6, 2024 5:32 AM NST

It's a 5h bus ride from my city to São Paulo, but I don't know anyone there to lend a space on their couch lol let's see what my unemployed bum can do about it. Once the date is announced, of course. And it would be hilarious if I were in my home city Brasília cuz I already planned for it

by elisa_rlyeh on November 6, 2024 6:45 AM NST

@uv_goth the London event is a pottery painting party in Kentish Town for 25 individuals. Other, larger events were submitted, but that's the one TNT picked to go ahead.

I'm not going or involved at all by the way, but I do wish the host and attendees well.

by recklesse on November 6, 2024 7:13 AM NST

@araeveya, unless your local event is the Hong Kong one (which I think TNT themselves are hosting) I don't recommend embarrassing yourself and the volunteer host/s by turning up without a ticket (I think a few of them don't require tickets, but most do because venues have limited capacity and can't hold more for safety reasons).

by recklesse on November 6, 2024 7:17 AM NST

Originally, we envisioned smaller scale, community-led meetups,
------

Just how oblivious are they!!!??

Okay, if they are suddenly going to waive all site restrictions about giving out personal info on site (not recommended) so people can gather together small groups of people who live near each other to go to a bar or a cafe together and celebrate.

Just another example of not fully thinking through the potential consequences of an idea.

by recklesse on November 6, 2024 7:25 AM NST

showing up anyway

by vanque on November 6, 2024 7:56 AM NST

I'm going to the one in Orlando!

by protovolve on November 6, 2024 9:26 AM NST

@recklesse I've seen lots of people planning to go without tickets to meet others without tickets as well and then make an unofficial meetup at another place (maybe a pub, a park?). Not worthy to travel, but for people in the area might be something interesting as well.

by ferinsy on November 6, 2024 9:44 AM NST

Reading and agree with soooo many comments here lol.
Avatar - if it's a Grundo Warehouse code, ya'll who are able to go, shaaaaare the coooode pleease!

by lilacia on November 6, 2024 9:59 AM NST

Took me a hot minute to work out those arrows were clickable links. I kept trying to click on the actual text (name of city).
--
Huh? But that works. It's how I did it. Didn't even register those arrows.

by smaragdeidechse on November 6, 2024 10:10 AM NST

@ferinsy, my point was that trying to gatecrash a ticketed event would not go down well. By all means make arrangements to meet other people but crashing a venue (many of which are quite small) isn't a great idea.

by recklesse on November 6, 2024 10:15 AM NST

Oh, seems to have changed now. Earlier it would only open if I clicked the arrows, not the names. Might have been a browser issue.

by recklesse on November 6, 2024 10:18 AM NST

@recklesse

Embarrassing myself? My event isn't even at a venue and is free so I'll be showing up but thanks for your input

by araeveya on November 6, 2024 10:28 AM NST

This is a nightmare. I'm so glad I didn't apply to host one, I seriously thought about it. But it sounds so stressful.

by brophyvirginia on November 6, 2024 11:23 AM NST

lmao the philly event still has no information. at this point i expect it to be a small gathering outside one of the sub places (philly people can roast me i'm in jersey it's cool, i know i probably said it wrong)

by amber_hawk14 on November 6, 2024 11:29 AM NST

@recklesse: wow. Lucky 25 I guess, for a 25th birthday. Just a shame Neopets doesn’t want to foster the larger community. I suppose I’ll check out if I can spot any unofficial meetups on Reddit or similar to see if more people are bummed out.

by panavision3 on November 6, 2024 11:48 AM NST

Where are people getting these RSVP, etc.? The events listing page has absolutely no additional info or ability to RSVP.

by neolodgeism on November 6, 2024 12:01 PM NST

Never mind - I see that by clicking on the microscopic arrow to the left of the city name, more details are shown.

What terrible usability design. The name should be clickable.

by neolodgeism on November 6, 2024 12:19 PM NST

@protovolve I RSVPd for Orlando too! I'm curious how many people intend to go.

by xamem on November 6, 2024 3:15 PM NST

@neolodgeism Perhaps it changed - I don't remember what it was like when I originally RSVPd - but the name is currently clickable.

by xamem on November 6, 2024 3:16 PM NST

@xamen
Last I heard 100+ people RSPV'd for Orlando. I'm worried about the parking situation but still hyped to meet some local Neopians (even though I'm traveling 1.5 hours to get there).

by protovolve on November 6, 2024 4:16 PM NST

What even is a "Pay to Win Avatar"? What do you get with an avatar that makes the game "win" for you?

Right, nothing...

Guys, they're pixel avatars, it doesn't give you an advantage in the game or anything like that.

If you can't get it, no biggie, it's an avatar.

by flightofjay on November 7, 2024 3:12 AM NST

the day that the location in Columbus Ohio was announced- it was already sold out. How do you buy tickets to a place that the location hasn't been announced yet?

by snudycaisu on November 7, 2024 7:39 AM NST

@snudycaisu I thiiiiinnnkkk (maybe wrong) that because of the tight deadlines and general chaos surrounding liaison between hosts/TNT and not getting updates posted to the public page very quickly, several of the hosts publicised their ticket links in social media groups of various types before TNT's page was updated.

As a total outsider, it looks to me like the TNT coordinator is doing most of their liaison via the private FB group mentioned at the top of this post.

Again, I'm not in the know at all. Only going off what is publicly visible, which is not always completely transparent.

by recklesse on November 7, 2024 9:22 AM NST

I really wanted to attend one, and even got a hotel nearby for the weekend, however, they announced their Birthday Bash was already full the same day it was announced and it wasn't even on the weekend! It was the Monday after. Huge disappointment and I have developed a new distrust in these sort of events in the future...

by ktheminion on November 7, 2024 11:42 AM NST

WELP, if Austin's already full, screw that. xD Though honestly, I can't see myself able to go anyway due to not having my own vehicle and I'm super uncertain about asking a family member to take me, especially since my dad works and I'm not gonna ask my stepmom to take time from her life to take me to an event that may not be that great (food and drinks at SOME EVENTS???).

But someone also told me onsite that it was gonna be around 3pm, so yeah, that's not very managable for us - who live around 5 hours or so away. We could've alternatively tried New Orleans, but quite frankly, I couldn't stand the smell of "grass" and don't want to go there again. Plus it's still a pretty long drive.

Maybe if they host one around Houston or Dallas, and at a way later time so it's more accessible / easy to plan around vs going around holidays and already existing schedules, I'll consider - but I BEG, please share the codes! I don't even have the other ones (Shoyru, trading decks, etc)! Speaking of, if you have codes to share, you can NM me at shellshocks.

by dusk on November 7, 2024 2:20 PM NST

Oh, I see it's actually around 5 (maybe it was actually around 3 another time; I'm 2 hours ahead of Neo)...I've never heard of Toy Joy, though. I can see why it's filled already, it's free with paid food (good lord, ice cream...I'd die for that).

I didn't know about the arrows, though! Thanks for pointing that out! I've checked the page multiple times and figured they weren't since my cursor didn't change, lol. I always saw that as the indication of being clickable.

by dusk on November 7, 2024 2:33 PM NST

@recklesse I'm super late, but thanks a LOT! I would've never guessed the arrows were clickable.

by nacbokmagi on November 9, 2024 6:53 AM NST

I am in Ireland and I really really want the avatar

by catcatcat on November 15, 2024 7:30 AM NST

If anyone is reading this, I will be going to an event and will be able to lend the item for the avatar to lots of people. You can DM or Neomail me @coolkaius

by coolkaius on November 15, 2024 9:46 AM NST

Only users of this website could see an optional and completely frivolous avatar and call it pay to win.

Yall. Neopets is a web-app game. It sucks that a lot of people couldn't participate in an IRL event, and I do think that speaks to TNT using this event to test the waters of public viability in the year of our lord

But it is not out of line to offer an avatar for showing up. If people choose to inflate it by scalping, why don't you blame them for taking advantage of people, or better, the jurisdictions that allow scalping merch to be legal in the first place? Come on now..

by pastelsincubus on November 15, 2024 2:30 PM NST

What a baloney event!! We've requested info for the events for a couple of WeekS Now with no response. Today, 11/15 finally we get info. Guess what?!? Seattle event is TOMORROW and NO, we can't RSVP. What a load of BS.

by velvet_paw on November 15, 2024 4:49 PM NST

Chicago event here to be honest I am so excited to meet more people into neopets that I honestly am so excited ! happy 25th birthday

by gothichickfreak818 on November 16, 2024 12:13 AM NST

Please please please consider adding another London date, this one sold out so fast and it's quite disheartening that the UK only got one date with a really low cap

by pwencesmars on November 16, 2024 8:30 AM NST

They just don't care, only thing they care about is to fill their pockets.
__

Are you really going to sit and complain while playing a FREE game? They have to pay bills if you want a website that isn't completely garbage. Running a website isn't cheap.

by kimbaproll on November 16, 2024 4:15 PM NST

I have to say the Austin event was fun! I was unable to RSVP and drove up from Houston anyway. They let me in! My daughter stayed downstairs with the group of people who had not RSVP'd. She ended up getting more prizes than I did! Christian and everyone else there did a great job of making sure everyone was included!

by shalzbut on November 16, 2024 6:04 PM NST

I went to the San Diego one, it was in a hole in the wall bar. Not a place I imagine for a family friendly game to have an event. The people were nice and everyone was happy to be there, but unless you were going to be drinking there was no point in being there. They had raffles, they gave you one ticket and sold tickets for $2 per. Each person picked an egg out of a basket and it had a code, a ticket, two pieces of candy and a scratcher for a gift. My gift was a button.... had a Kougra on it. We stayed long enough for the raffle and headed home (we don't drink). All in all it was a lot of gas (160 miles round trip) to get a code for an Avatar, But hey, now I can lend the item to others for the Avatar....

by ddhhorne on November 18, 2024 4:44 PM NST